Ex-Lautarista Juan Aliste Vega dies in prison, sentenced to 42 years for killing a carabinero
The former member of the Youth Lautaro Movement died at age 53 at Santiago Penitentiary Hospital, after requesting a pardon from President Kast for terminal cancer.
Ex-Lautarista sentenced for carabinero murder dies at Santiago Penitentiary Hospital
Juan Aliste Vega, a former member of the Youth Lautaro Movement (MJL), died on Sunday at the age of 53 at Santiago Penitentiary Hospital, where he had been hospitalised with cancer that had metastasised to his pelvis, liver and both lungs. According to elpais.com, the prisoner was serving a sentence of 42 years imprisonment for his role in the murder of Carabineros Corporal Luis Moyano during a robbery at Banco Security in Santiago in October 2007.
The Chilean Penitentiary Service confirmed the death and specified that Aliste Vega had suffered a medical emergency while at Santiago Sur Penitentiary Centre. "The penitentiary institution activated the appropriate protocols established for these contingencies: the psychosocial team was instructed to notify relatives of what had occurred and the Public Prosecutor was informed," the institution said in a statement.
The 2007 robbery and the sentence
The facts that determined the sentence date back to 18 October 2007, when Aliste Vega, along with Freddy Fuentevilla and Marcelo Villarroel, robbed a branch of Banco Security in central Santiago. The group fled with a haul of 22 million pesos and 3,400 dollars. During the flight, Corporal Luis Moyano was fatally shot, and the investigation identified Aliste Vega as the perpetrator of the crime.
The defendant was arrested in Argentina in 2010 and sentenced in 2014 to 42 years imprisonment for Corporal Moyano's murder, for the attempted murder of another police officer and for robberies of two bank branches in Santiago and Valparaíso. His history of political violence also extended to 1991, when he took part in the death of Carabineros Sergeant Manuel Cares, as part of armed actions by the MJL during the democratic transition.
The letter to Kast and the pardon request
In early October, Aliste Vega sent a letter to President José Antonio Kast requesting a pardon due to his terminal condition. "I know that my convictions are serious and that this request demands a reasoned and responsible decision. I do not intend to deny them or diminish the suffering of the victims and their families," wrote the defendant. His defence also filed a petition with the Supreme Court to modify the conditions in which he was serving his sentence, a request that the highest court rejected.
Kast did not grant the pardon, although he stated in September, in an interview with Radio Agricultura, that it would not be appropriate for a person with a poor health prognosis to die in prison. "This has been pointed out by different legal experts, from different perspectives, that it is not appropriate for a person to die in jail," said the president.
The Ministry of Justice reported that Kast has received more than 100 pardon requests, most of them from those convicted of human rights violations during the Pinochet dictatorship, imprisoned at Punta Peuco prison. Minister Fernando Rabat specified that a small group of the hundred applicants consists of former police officers sentenced for acts of violence during the 2019 social uprising.
First rupture in the Republican Party
The pardon request triggered the first internal crisis in the Republican Party since it joined the ruling coalition. The far-right party, which has historically advocated for the application of humanitarian pardons to those convicted of dictatorship crimes and police repression in 2019, expressed its willingness to apply the same criterion to the ex-Lautarista.
The position generated rejection from Republican deputy Macarena Santelices, who resigned from the party. "One of the things I do not compromise on and will never compromise on are values. You cannot mix apples and oranges. When two carabineros have been killed in less than a week, the defence of the heroes who gave their lives serving Chile is not up for discussion, there is no comparison, and certainly not with an ex-Lautarista who not only killed a carabinero in 2007 but had already done so in 1991, to Corporal Manuel Cares. It was not appropriate, it was not the time, values are not compromised," Santelices said in an interview with La Tercera.
Despite Santelices's resignation, the party maintained its position. After learning of Aliste Vega's death, deputy José Carlos Meza reaffirmed the party's line. "We have always said that republicans respect the dignity of people from conception until natural death and that is why we have always advocated for the need to apply humanitarian pardons for people who have terminal illnesses and who do not pose a danger to society. We are talking about people who in a few weeks will very probably die and what we hope is that humanity is applied and so these people can pass away in their homes," Meza said.
Source: Google News CL — Crime